|
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was of Scottish
descent. His great-grandfather, John Poe, came from Ireland to
Pennsylvania about 1745. John’s son, David Poe, fought in the Revolution
and War of 1812. Edgar Allan Poe’s father in 1805 married Elizabeth
Arnold. Both were actors, and their son, an orphan at an early age, was
adopted by John Allan, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer of Richmond,
Virginia, who had him educated in England and at the University of
Virginia.
“Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was of
Scottish descent. His great-grandfather, John Poe, came from Ireland to
Pennsylvania about 1745. John’s son, David Poe, fought in the Revolution
and War of 1812. Edgar Allan Poe’s father in 1805 married Elizabeth
Arnold. Both were actors, and their son, an orphan at an early age, was
adopted by John Allan, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer of Richmond,
Virginia, who had him educated in England and at the University of
Virginia.”
The forgoing are the well known, correct
facts of Edgar Allan Poe. Nevertheless, Poe’s genealogy and racial
heritage have been ascribed foremost to his English mother from London,
Elizabeth, as well as to Poe connections in Ireland.
Nevertheless, it is largely unknown by
Americans that the Scottish immigrants to Ireland were settled in
Ulster, Northern Ireland, by William of Orange. They are well known by
Scots as Ulster-Scots. The distinction of an Ulster-Scot and the Irish
connection proved crucial to an understanding of the error of scholars
who did not know this cultural difference between Presbyterians and
Irish Roman Catholics.
No one has ever conducted any serious
research of the Poes of Scotland. The American Military Academy of West
Point in New York has in its “vertical file” of Cadets, the most
published Family Tree of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is incorrect.
However, the statement, “His
great-grandfather, John Poe, came from Ireland to Pennsylvania about
1745,” is misleading. No questions are asked or answered in available
biographies regarding where John Poe was before Ireland? He was in
Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland. And the unraveling of accepted “facts” of
Poe’s heritage continue in 880 pages of new data about Poe’s Scottish
Connections. In 1997, when we first visited Ayrshire, we passed by this
quaint hamlet of Fenwick, not knowing that Poe’s ancestors had once
lived here. The author has labored for 20 years on his research and
writing of Edgar Allan Poe, now set to be available in 2016.
Here is Chapter 5 from the
forthcoming book about Edgar Allan Poe sent in by the author for which
many thanks
Also an old and now lost web site on him can be found in
the archives at:
http://www.poeinscotland.com/index.html
|
